Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger Anil Dash.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Jay: Looking for Carnival of the Capitalists?
The latest edition of Carnival of the Capitalists is over at Welcome to Help, despite not being quite ready for primetime.
Deb: Serious Growth
All of that eating seems to have done the kid some good! Over the last week, he went from 8 pounds 2 ounces to 8 pounds 13 ounces, and from 20.25 inches to 21 inches. Woo-hoo!
To put it in perspective, they want an ounce a day and that’s 1.5 times that, and they’re looking for birthweight by 2 weeks and he was 9 ounces over that.
Damn, but that’s awesome, if I do say so myself. :D
Jay: Weird Dream
Last night I had my first dream that included Henry, unless you count the one I had in 2003, before I went out to meet Deb, with all three kids-to-be in it.
Now that was a funny typo. I typed “ingluded” rather than “included.” I guess that would mean the same, but in a much stronger form. Heh.
Anyway, the part I remember was at what seemed like a party or gathering in a large, open, roughly L-shaped room in a mansion-like building. Various of my family were there, including specifically my brother-in-law, Jimmy, and my uncle, Roger. The place had a high ceiling, and around the edges of the room a balcony overlooked it from the second level. There were many people mingling on the balcony and watching the goings on on the ground floor. Among those were my uncle.
I had the baby with me. For some reason I wanted to take him up to the balcony, and there was some degree of urgency involved. There was no way up to it. Jimmy had me try a ladder.
So there I am, going up a stepladder, balancing Henry, and I find I am already standing on the top of the ladder, able to proceed no higher. Jimmy urges me to use a lip that protrudes along the wall, looking like a 6x6” beam stuck there and sheetrocked over. If you stood on that, you could just reach over the rail along the balcony. Standing atop the ladder, I was perhaps shoulders even with the top of that six inch or so wide ledge, able to see how much dirt it had collected.
I was trying to figure out how I could hold the baby and pull myself onto that at the same time, feeling wobbly with the entire ladder and nothing else under my feet. People above and below were urging me on, but there was just no way. I was about to fall, drop the baby, or both.
As I gave up and was going to get down, with all the onlookers intensely disappointed, I wondered why on earth I was trying to go that way, and wasn’t there a staircase somewhere in the building. That’s when I woke up.
Deb: Your Tuesday morning dose of The Cranky
Fer chrissake, people, if it were an insurance company proposing the same thing half of you would be all excited about what a wonderful idea it is, because half of you have not grasped that being abused by corporations is still being abused. Not to mention that this is possible because the parties involved are not in any way actually private, but is it really worth trying to go into that this morning, given that the same half seem to think that government control is not only ethical but desirable just so long as there’s a layer of middlemen profiting from it somewhere along the line? (See Romney, Mitt.)
Monday, September 03, 2007
Jay: Henry and His Mom
Jay: Happy Birthday
To blogger Flibbertigibbet, who also appears to be 30 today.
Jay: Happy Birthday
To former blogger Trey Givens, who is 30 today.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Jay: Whew… That Was Fun
Some things Sadie just can’t help with.
We got a slightly used baby swing, the alternative being to find screws to fit the old one with an excessive footprint or buy a new one, but it turned out to have been assembled inaccurately. We’d looked at it somewhat, and I’d gotten a feel for the basic problem, but I wasn’t clear then on how, if it was wrong that way, it could ever have been meant to work. It took further disassembly to see it, at which point it was relatively straightforward.
The thing is designed to fold and transport, to fold to a compact height, or to be full height, which is still smaller than the old swing Sadie used. The design makes it inherently shakier than seems ideal in the full height, though it does appear technically safe. We have it on the living room floor beside his car seat, ready to be enjoyed in compacts mode. That puts the bottom of the seat just a couple inches off the floor at its lowest point. The girls have been good about leaving him along in the seat, so they’ll probably be oaky with the swing, though it’s inherently more interesting, attracting opinions and a desire to “help.” For instance, it has a toy console that straps to the tray. The girls have decreed that he must have the toy console on there.
It was hardly the hardest thing I’ve assembled or reassembled, but I can see how it could have tripped someone up. Especially if the instructions were typical. Why is it that no manufacturer can ever seem to get instructions right? That’d be an interesting gig for me; testing product assembly instructions and supplying feedback as to how they could be rewritten for better satisfaction. Heck, if I were the old-fashioned handyman type (guys who do that around here have more work than they can handle, but it also requires working fairly cheap compared to many jobs or businesses), I could see making product assembly one of the list of services provided.
Even something as simple as your basic $30, five shelf bookcase, I have found myself wondering what they were thinking when they created the instructions. Usually I have to step back, look at the parts, look at the image of the finished result, ignore the instructions freely and logic it out myself.
Despite all the cursing, I’m relatively good at that kind of thing. I grew up labeled “not mechanically inclined,” but that was compared to my overachieving brother. Any time I’ve tested for that, I’ve tested way up there, as has my sister.
Okay, Valerie says “I’m in yer office, deztroyin yer stuff” so I have to be done with this post…
Jay: When the Kids Get Really Fun
Yesterday Sadie helped me setup computers on the second desk in the office. She was able to hold ends of cords for me, under the desk, so I could reach them more easily from the back of the desk and plug them in. She was fascinated by the whole exercise. I love that she can really help now!
Later in the day, I told the DOS 486 out of their bedroom and she got to use a screwdriver to help remove the cover so I could see what ailed it. The immediate thing was the fan and heat sink, such as they are on a 486, had fallen off the CPU. That would explain the sounds it had been making. One of the legs is broken, but it’ll stay on if handled gently. If I had some heat transfer gunk, I’d use that to help it stay better.
I also found the CMOS battery floating around loose inside the case, and the place where it goes so damaged, or whatever happened to it, the battery couldn’t possibly stay there short of, say, replacing the motherboard. Weird. We’re used to fixing the settings every time the machine is turned on, so no big deal; it’s just a keybanger and DOS games box.
I thought letting her use the screwdriver, a task that needs a bit of work, would be cool because the day before she fell in love with a tool a friend gave me years ago as a gift. It’s a small hammer, all metal. The handle unscrews, and there’s a phillips screwdriver! Then end of that unscrews and there’s another, smaller phillips screwdriver. But wait, there’s more! The end of that screws off completely, and out falls a very small flat screwdriver. And, can you stand it, the end of that unscrews to reveal a final screwdriver, a tiny flat one for fixing your glasses. Sadie thought this was THE coolest thing ever. Smart kid. It tends to be out and about, or in a handy drawer, and at least as far as hammering needs, get quite a bit of use. I used it again yesterday to bang in a couple nails from which to hang a big power strip/surge protector by the new desk. A heavy power cord with three outlets is strung across the ceiling from the power/surge strip that hangs out of reach on the side of a bookcase, ending near ceiling level by the side window. The big strip hooks to that, as does the air conditioner. By hanging those up, they are convenient and out of ready reach of the little ones. Plus it’s immediately adjacent to the shelf above the desk, where I have a UPS for each of the two computers, and speakers for the one that got them. It’s Frankenstein’s office.
Anyway, what I set out to say was how much fun it is, having a kid getting to the point of able to do stuff like work with tools, and able to understand more complex explanations. Not to mention her appreciation of music. I was testing out the new computer with good speakers, playing selected songs, while she sat on my lap and bopped along to them. She was singing along, a few words behind so she could repeat the words, since she didn’t know them. Then I foiled her by playing Jesu, but she caught on to doo-ing along to the tune without words.
Of course, they also get “fun” when they learn to do stuff like count.
They were getting pre-bedtime spice dropes from me last night. I gave Sadie two. She said, “no, three!” I gave her a third one. Then Valerie counted to three when I was fishing out three for her. Seems like just yesterday Sadie first got the concept of two, which she never stopped enthusing about, and now Valerie has already passed two.
What I didn’t know was that, earlier in the day, Sadie had looked at a plate with three crackers and two pieces of summer sausage and announced “five.” Apparently she has blossomed math-wise.
Now we just need to get Valerie past the point where she’ll try to do crazy things like put a lithium battery in her mouth…
Jay: Happy Birthday
To Sandy Arneson Tracy, who is the sister of my friend Jean, who is the wife of my friend Adam, who is the brother of my brother’s first ex-wife, and therefore is co-uncle with me to my oldest niece and nephew. Convoluted enough for you?
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Jay: Pictures for a Saturday Night
Me and Sadie in our matching shirts.
My sister Lynn with Henry, who took to her nicely for some reason.
My grandniece Cindy Brady Julia.
Henry on my grandniece Katherine.
Sadie on my future babysitter grandniece Emily.
Jay: I *Can* Be Succinct
I decided to play with LinkedIn a bit today, including providing a description of my last employment, with the old business. I managed to fit August 1996 to September 2007 into:
Custom software development and IT services for law firms and other businesses.
As managing partner, handled most of the business aspects. Created, maintained and administered the web site and e-mail accounts.
Participated in designing, writing, testing, debugging, maintaining, porting, compiling and distributing Visual Basic software. Worked with customers and beta testers on needs analysis and beta feedback. Supervised software development.
Deployed and upgraded servers, network infrastructure, and internet connectivity. Built, repaired and supported computers and other hardware. Installed, reinstalled, troubleshot and supported most versions of Windows and numerous outher applications, including some particular to law firm environments.
Which isn’t complete, but is close enough.
Even though it’s not technically former, I moved the position out of “current” so I can put the new one there. I’ll see if Stream needs updating, and perhaps go back through other things. It amounts to having a resume online, and is practice for writing one.
Jay: Details, Details
This is an interesting article oriented mainly to corporate IT. This item is exactly what I always say:
4. How to get a quick answer from the IT guy.
“‘X is broken’ makes it very hard for us to properly take care of your problem, because we don’t even know how to categorize and prioritize the problem,” said Ian Beyer, a network administrator at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan.
Instead, offer some basic information right when you request help: What were you doing when “X” did something unexpected? Did it give you any error messages? If so, what were they? When did it happen and how long has it been going on? Can you make it do it again? By when do you need the help?
Would you tell your mechanic “it’s broken”?
No. You would give as much detail on symptoms and circumstances as you could. If he had a question, you’d be available to answer it.
It’s absolutely crazy to issue a blanket “it’s won’t work” or “I’m having problems with my computer,” then not answer any followup questions. Not just have no idea, but ignore the questions, or disappear, and simply expect it to be fixed promptly.
Jay: Still Poor Again
Heh. At least somebody won Mega Millions this time, resetting it back to the “little” jackpot of $12 million. I generally don’t play at all, and then not reliably, until it’s over 100. That’s probably strange, but it’s also common behavior.
No birthdays today, or I probably wouldn’t even be bothering with this post just to have something to refresh the blog this morning. Of course, I can always post pictures (he suddenly remembers, aloud to himself).
I finally gave notice on the office in Easton that I never use anymore because it was always mainly there for benefit of the former big client, who is also, in effect, the landlord. At the same time, I reminded them of the 15k and change still outstanding, which will be the source of the 5k and change of rent outstanding on the office. That will make this an insanely busy month, cleaning out the office and finding something to do with all the stuff.
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